


Sans and the Dream

by Jitterz



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Depression warning, Determination, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-27 00:57:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5027512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jitterz/pseuds/Jitterz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans has been running on fumes through the resets, and now that Frisk has finally stopped resetting and going back to old saves, whatever was fueling Sans seems to be running out…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sans and the Dream

**Author's Note:**

> I thought of the story when laying down to sleep last night. I jokingly promised myself that if I remembered it come morning, that I would write and post it. I woke up and nervously discovered I remembered all of it... So... um.. Here we are? *Covers face* I haven't written fanfiction in a horribly long time, sorry if any of the characters are out of sorts or anything. Nrrhh- Enjoy!
> 
> None of these characters are mine, the usual disclaimer that this is written just for fun! (I did write this for fun, yes? That's what that feeling in my gut is. I hope.)

It had been a while since the barrier was broken and the monsters had returned above ground. Summer had crawled to an end and winter had blanketed the surface. Most found that human winters were much crueler than Snowden, and had returned underground till that one particular season passed. It was a good break after spending most of a year discovering new things, and the comfort of familiar things was just what everyone needed for the upcoming holiday.

Frisk ran quickly in circles, chasing the young monster kid they had befriended earlier, as they waited for Toriel to finish her visit within the library. For the monsters that had stayed behind, many gifts were brought back. Items like new books, new music, new postcards and new fashions. Papyrus and Undyne had offered to help carry back most of it, and Toriel brought down the last of the items with Frisk’s help.

Frisk stopped mid-turn and looked further down the snowy stretch that was Snowden. A sudden lull in the soothing feeling Snowden was home to caught the young human’s attention. That was until the monster child ran full speed into the back of Frisk and sent them both tumbling down into the snow.

The door to the library opened, and Toriel looked down at the two children half buried in snow and smiled. She reached down and scooped both the children up and carefully placed them down back on their feet. Frisk rubbed their face clean of snow while Toriel helped the monster kid dislodge some snow from their nose.

“My child, can you take this to Papyrus for me?” She mentioned as she took a book from her sleeve and offered it to Frisk. “It seems he left it with the rest of the books.”

Frisk nodded, took the book, and darted off through the snow. The feeling they had earlier seemed to be getting stronger the closer Frisk got to the home of the two funny bones, but that did not stop them from energetically patting on the door loudly once they got there.

_Pat-pat- pat- pat- pat- pat-pat!_

Frisk stopped and looked at the door intensely. They were determined to deliver this book! Frisk tucked the book under their arm, and tested the door handle. Unlocked, meaning someone was home. Out of all the monsters, it seemed like Papyrus and Sans were the ones who were most on top of keeping their dwelling locked if no one was home. Frisk carefully leaned into the doorway, and looked around.

No one was in the main living room of the home that they could see, and patting loudly on the door frame drew no one from the kitchen. The child looked up at the two doors that lead to the bedrooms above, and couldn’t imagine Papyrus sleeping…ever. There was a first time for everything though. Frisk stomped the snow off their feet, closed the door, and quickly darted into the kitchen. There they patted the dog under the sink, checked the fridge (still the same, only more spaghetti from the above ground), and visited the garbage can for unknown reasons. Having thoroughly checked that part of the home, the child turned towards the stairs.

Papyrus’ door was closed per usual, but oddly enough Sans’ door was cracked open. How the flames from under the door disappeared or even existed from time to time were a mystery to the child. First thing first though, Frisk patted on the door to Papyrus’ room. No answer and Frisk sighed. They peeked into the room and saw an odd sight. A large bag was placed in the center of the room, and a stack of books leaned very carefully against it. Frisk entered the room and placed the book on the unstable pile. Surprisingly, it held just fine. The bag of mystery couldn’t be checked, it was tied too tightly. The child hoped Papyrus would notice the book when he returned, and quickly left the room.

Before Frisk could think of quickly leaving the home, they found themselves at the cracked open door to Sans’ room. The last time they were here, Sans had pulled a prank on them through time and space (as Payprus told it). Determined to prank Sans back, the child entered the room.

Here was where that feeling came back, uneasy and sudden. Frisk looked and saw no self-contained tornado of stuff, no socks on the floor, and the treadmill was actually put away. The child remembered everyone cleaning up before heading above ground, not wanting to return to a mess. However they never thought Sans would take part in that as well. Frisk turned to leave the room, but stopped. Sans was actually on his bed and the child could not remember seeing him when first looking into the room. Frisk stood in the doorway for a moment, and then patted the door frame to see if the skeleton would respond. He did not and seemed to be sleeping?

Frisk normally wouldn’t think much of it. However something about the air within the room caused the child to begin to worry. The child carefully stepped back into the room and approached their sleeping friend. Sans lay flat on his back, his arms to his sides, and appears to be sound asleep. No blanket covered them, and they even still had their slippers on. Frisk reached over and patted San’s arm to try and wake them, but was given no response. That was odd… usually that would at least cause their friend to stir somewhat.

The sudden memory of Alphys and her experiments with the “fallen down” monsters and the memory that Sans had one hp caused Frisk to skip trying to pat their friend awake, to full on shaking them. The lack of response to this as well caused the child’s worry to switch over to fear.

Frisk hopped from one foot to the other nervously, before running from the room at full speed.

 

Sans was not aware how long he had been laying there. Now that the human finally seemed happy, the time skips had stopped. No more resets, for now at least. Whatever had been keeping him going through all the time lines finally seemed to have given out. He had felt so tired since they had moved above ground, and it wasn’t from the jobs to make rent for everyone. Those he could do with his eyes closed… and sometimes did. His mind wandered across all the memories of all the time lines he had seen, and they all just seemed to smear together now. Sans was no longer aware he was even sleeping, and barely even noticed something shake him. By the time his mind registered something had happened, it had already stopped and he could no longer remember what it was even registering in the first place anyways…

 

Frisk had promised not to do it again. They had promised themselves and everyone else silently that they would not do it again. The child’s feet flew over the snow it seemed, as their determination alone gave them an extra boost of speed to find Toriel. She would know what to do, and they would not need to reset again. Toriel was surprised when Frisk caught up with her at the inn and had launched themselves into her arms. After a moment of confusion, she went ahead and followed Frisk back out the door they had just ran through. She called over her shoulder to the worried innkeeper to locate Papyrus for her.

 

He was there again, that one time line’s memory stung the most. Sans felt the cold floor of the castle under him, and the brick wall to his back. His chest felt heavy where he knew the damage had been dealt, and refused to look down at it. The last few moments before the end were always the longest. He had asked Papyrus something, but had forgotten what he had asked. Not that his brother could answer him anymore… Sans looked over and saw the shadow of the child waiting behind the pillar. Something seemed off in the memory… as the child was not red eyed. They seemed worried, and nervous. No knife was in their hand, and instead their hands were hugging their arms.

“…Frisk?” Sans tried to say, or at least thought really loudly. The child shimmered and disappeared. The rest of the memory followed as well, and Sans felt himself being tugged up by the front of his jacket. The sudden departure from the memory caused him to get lost in the darkness that had replaced it.

 

After Papyrus was done shaking his brother by his jacket and Frisk had managed to pull him away, Torel carefully picked up the smaller skeleton in her arms. Sans just seemed to be asleep, she thought, a very deep sleep. She was worried none the less, and the others had agreed to move him. Carefully pulling the hood over the top of Sans’ head, Toriel carried him down the stairs and out the door of the home.

Frisk followed closely behind, holding Papyrus’ hands in a hug as they walked. This caused the much taller skeleton to walk oddly hunched over, but his eyes were so filled with tears that he probably couldn’t see where he was going anyways. The child had heard Toriel say that Sans was probably just very tired, but they were taking him to see Alphys anyways. This didn’t really comfort Frisk, but Papyrus seemed to appreciate the gesture. It would be a bit of a walk, but Frisk was determined to hold onto Papyrus’ arms all the way.

 

Alphys did not really know what to say or do when the queen and their mutual friends were at the door instead of Undyne. She had long since resigned as the royal scientist, but had been permitted to still live in the labs as long as she kept the labs running. Her pajamas were probably not the most reassuring outfit she could have been wearing as Toriel got her caught up on why they were visiting. She quickly added her usual lab coat to her current outfit, and hoped it might help.

“I’ll do w-what I can?” Alphys offered and led them to the guest room she had added for when she had visitors. It was a new addition to the lab. Before Frisk had arrived, no one really stayed long enough for her to had needed one. There they placed Sans down, and Toriel turned to Papyrus.

“My brave royal guard, your brother will be okay. Let’s let Alphys take care of him for now.” She said in her most soothing voice, taking Papyrus by the shoulders and leading him from the room. “Frisk has told me you like to cook?”

Frisk watched as Toriel worked her motherly magic on Papyrus to help calm him down as they walked off into the lab. Once they were gone, the child looked to Alphys. She was placing a blanket over Sans and tucked it in under his arms. She then looked at Frisk and lowered her eyes.

“I… I’m sorry, Frisk… I don’t really know Sans that well… o-or skeleton life spans…” She muttered shakily, and adjusted her glasses. “It could be… he’s just really exhausted and will wake up on his own… o..or…” She couldn’t finish her sentence, and instead focused more on her nervous hands.

Frisk felt their heart ache, but reached over and patted her hands. Alphys smiled a bit, and lifted her head. “L-Let’s try and keep your friend comfortable, okay? W…we can get everyone to get something for this room. I-I haven’t really had much time to make it cozy yet.”

The child nodded and darted from the room with their usual energy. Alphys heard the others talking, and then hurried footsteps as the child probably ran off with Papyrus to begin their quest of finding items. She looked over at the sleeping skeleton and sighed. She had seen Sans on the video feed of watching Frisk on their earlier adventures, and met him once or twice while above ground visiting the other. Something just seemed off to see him without his usual grin. While looking at him, Alphys thought she saw a flicker of blue light from one of his eyes.

“Alphys?” Someone suddenly saying her name caused Alphys to jump a bit. “I’m sorry; I just wanted to apologize for showing up without notifying you first. Are you alright?” Toriel said from the doorway, holding her hands close to her heart.

Alphys tried to put on a smile like Undyne encouraged her to usually do, but it across as her looking very nervous. “I-It’s alright. I’m glad you would come to me f-for help still.”

They stood there in silence for a while, neither really knowing how to continue the conversation. Thankfully the sounds of Frisk returning with Papyrus broke the silence.

 

Papyrus spent the next few hours helping Frisk set up the room, and then had pulled up a chair next to the bed. He was just sitting there, leaning forwards and had his arms stretched out at the foot of the bed. Waiting and watching over his brother. He wasn’t his usual talkative self and the others decided to give them some space for a bit.

Frisk sat with Alphy in the upper part of her labs, and they were looking over any books they could for a mention of skeleton monsters. “Well you see that’s the problem with skeleton medical history. I heard they just appeared in Snowden one day, and I don’t know of any history for them before that.” Alphys mentioned while flipping through a book.

The child nodded and took another book from the box. The castle was home to all sorts of old records, and Asgore had willingly lent them to Alphys when she called. Toriel had left to go get something to add to the room as well. Frisk hoped whatever it would be would help. Did Sans like pie? Would she return with pie? Would pie help? Pie always helped the child… if only they had noticed sooner.

 

Sans felt a weight on his feet as he walked through the snow of Snowden. It was an odd weight, something he didn’t really understand but was comforted by. It was the middle of the night, and most of the monsters were asleep. He couldn’t sleep. Something was keeping him from resting, and he could only walk in circles around the outskirts of town. He looked out at the fields of snow and ice, and felt a sensation of something calling to him yet heard nothing. The comforting weight on his feet kept him in town though. It was an odd feeling. He had no other memory he could access with a feeling like this. Was he awake right now? He felt as if he was forgetting something…

 

Toriel returned and carefully placed a blanket over Papyrus’ shoulders. She had personally never seen the skeleton sleep, but there was a first for everything. She then placed a pot of flowers on the table next to Sans’ bed and straightened his blanket some. “We’re all here for you Sans… we’re waiting for you to wake up.” She mentioned quietly, and patted his shoulder. “Please don’t keep your brother waiting…”

A promise was a promise, the child thought as they watched Toriel leave the room and go talk with Alphys. Frisk snuck into the room and closed the door behind them. A promise is a promise. The child sat down on the edge of the bed, and pressed their head into Sans’ arm. Would breaking the promise and resetting again hurt their friend more? Or save them? A promise…

 

“Well I can’t say I’ve been here before.” Sans muttered and looked around the vast darkness. It smelt of flowers oddly and now his arm was heavy. He kept it that arm’s hand in his pocket and brought his other hand to his mouth. “Hello?! Papyrus? Frisk? Undyne?” The void did not echo anything back, nor did any response come. With a nervous chuckle, Sans began to wander about in the darkness. He had been walking for some time when he suddenly felt the old tug of a reset creeping up on him. “Oh no, Kid, come on.”

 

Frisk sat up slightly, waking up some from dozing off there. They thought they heard something, and caught themselves almost resetting the time line again. A promise is a promise. A promise is-

“Kid…”

The child jumped and quickly looked at Sans. Had he just speak? Was Frisk hearing things? When in doubt, pat it out. Frisk quickly began to pat on Sans’ chest.

In the dream, Sans felt the patting and place his hand over his chest. In another time, he held his hand there for a different reason. “Has… something happened to me? Kid, are you going to reset because something happened?” Sans shook his head and squeezed his chest.

Frisk stopped patting when Sans reached up with one hand slightly. The child caught his hand, and placed it down on his chest. Frisk held his hand there, squeezing it tightly. Sans could feel something holding onto his hand within the dream, and chuckled. “Oh boy… I bet Papyrus is crying like a baby…”

 

Morning came and Papyrus was dragged quiet literally into the kitchen by Undyne. Frisk was woken up by the wails of Papyrus as unfortunately it was time to noogie the skeleton. The child sat up and rubbed their eyes with one hand, and noticed their other hand was being held by Sans. Frisk patted their hands and pointed with a smile when Toriel came into the room to check in on them. She had brought one of the many books they had gotten from the surface and began to read out loud. Alphys joined them, checked in on Sans, and sat to listen as well.

 

Sans sat alone in the darkness, holding a hand he couldn’t see in his own against his chest. He had felt something familiar in this darkness once before. It was a time when someone had to reach out and call his name to bring him back along with the others. The whole memory was blotted out by large white blank spots, which was odd for him. ‘Why even try?’ echoed a tired version of himself in his mind. Sans held onto the hand he couldn’t see, and sighed. A grin crept across his face once again, and realized that even though something wasn’t perfect in the current time line… the child had not reset. It was easy to give up and reset back to a time before the bad thing happened. That was lot easier than trying to work through something new and scary. Sans got up and looked around, starting to feel a new sort of tired. He was tired of sitting in a vast void of no Papyrus, no Frisk, and no jokes. He raised his heavy arm and his eye lit up. The darkness was illuminated by large monster skulls that flickered into existence around him. He found himself in an empty version of Snowden. Sans felt determined to get out of whatever this is, and get home. He’d been there long enough.

 

Alphys could have sworn she saw the wisp of light again, but decided not to mention it as Frisk and Toriel did not seem to notice. She kept an eye on Sans while Toriel continued to ready.

 

Sans stomped his way through the snow, the monster skulls were lighting the way and his hand back in his jacket pocket. He still held onto the invisible hand, which he had judged from the size, must be Frisk’s. He could now hear Toriel’s voice, and was doing his best to follow it. The voice from before was trying to lead him out of Snowden, but Toriel’s voice was coming from the center it seemed. Sans stopped and looked up north towards the water that flowed behind the town, and followed her voice up the path. There her voice was the loudest before it cut out, and Sans suddenly felt a weight on his shoulders.

The monster skulls of his flickered away once his feet came to a rest by the edge, and he looked around for them. They never disobeyed before… but then again, he wasn’t on familiar turf at the moment. The sudden ringing of a phone caught Sans off guard, and he jumped a bit. Pulling his hand back out of his pocket, he saw the phone that was ringing had been in his hand. Since when-

The phone automatically picked up and static filled the air around him. Even the image of Snowden seemed to fizzle with the noise.

“Are you sure?” Asked a voice he did not recognize.

Sans frowned slightly at the phone, before grinning nervously and shrugging. The only part of the world he was in that wasn’t being affected by the static was the dark water in front of him. Seems he had found the exit.

“Are you sure? Are you sure?” The voice said from the phone again, before Sans placed it down in the snow before getting ready to leave. “Are you sure about this? You can’t come back. No going back. You can never go back far enough.”

He hesitated just for a moment. Should he answer the voice? Did it know of… No. It did not matter. Not here, and not now. He had kept the others waiting long enough. Papyrus has probably dehydrated himself from crying too much, and he would not stand for himself being the reason is brother came to harm. Sans held his nose that didn’t exist, smiled, and stepped off the ledge. The water rushed up to greet him, and in a flurry of darkness he was swept away from the dream.

 

 

Frisk was patting his chest when Sans finally opened his eyes again. Toriel was standing over him, and Alphys had run off to get the others. He gave a big grin. “Sorry, I must have picked up an extra lazy bone somewhere. I hope I didn’t make anyone worry.”

The sounds of Papyrus stomping his way over caused Sans’ smile to shrink some. Hands on his hips, Papyrus gave Sans the most stern look he could, although he didn’t look so stern while crying. Toriel picked Frisk up and off the bed. Sans for once couldn’t think of a pun, but didn’t have much of a chance to say anything besides ‘hey bro’ before Papyrus crashed down onto him in the form of some sort of crushing hug pile.

“I HATE YOUR NAPS!” Papyrus shouted between sobs.

Once he had some wind back in his ribcage, Sans patted Papyrus’s back. Frisk helped pat Papyrus’ back too, while Toriel went to get everyone some tea and snacks.

Alphy smiled nervously as she watched everyone, she was glad Sans was able to come back on his own. However her mind wandered back to that wisp of blue light she had now seen twice… what was- Her thoughts were interrupted by Undyne jumping behind her and picking her up.

“Now that everyone is awake, WE CAN EAT! I have cooked SO MUCH!!” She shouted, lifting Alphy high overhead.

Everyone sort of felt their stomachs drop, as they imagined all the spaghetti they would now have to eat… perhaps a food coma was in everyone’s future now.

**Author's Note:**

> *rolls away* Soorrryyyy


End file.
